Ollie Grcich used a bullhorn to rally fellow students outside Valparaiso High School after they walked out of school Wednesday to demonstrate against gun violence. She gave opening remarks to begin the 17-minute protest, designed to honor the 17 victims in the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla.,...

Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune

Valparaiso resident Candace Shaw speaks out against the proposed South Shore Classical Academy in September during a public hearing on the school's application process.

Valparaiso resident Candace Shaw speaks out against the proposed South Shore Classical Academy in September during a public hearing on the school's application process. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)

Local sports

First Team 106 – Jacob Moran, Portage, junior: Won first state title with a 9-1 decision to cap a 34-2 season. 113 – Andres Moreno, Lowell, junior: Went undefeated until the state meet, placing seventh to finish with a 45-2 record. 120 – Brock Peele, Portage, junior: After a semistate title, Peele...

Chesterton senior Lucas Davison tried other sports. The 195-pound state champion spent time playing basketball, football, soccer and baseball during his childhood. But wrestling was the one that always stuck. "I was around it for so long," he said. "I was a fan of it. Wrestling can be a year-round...

Freshman point guard Dana Evans was forced to make a huge adjustment when she arrived at Louisville . Not surprisingly, the former West Side star has handled the challenge with aplomb. After leading Indiana in scoring her final high school season and finishing her career as the state's sixth all-time...

Photo galleries

More than 200 protesters came to the Gary Jet Center on Feb. 23, 2018, where a busload of people who had entered the country illegally were expected to be boarded onto a plane for Texas, then deported.More

More than 200 protesters came to the Gary Jet Center on Feb. 23, 2018, where a busload of people who had entered the country illegally were expected to be boarded onto a plane for Texas, then deported.

The University of Notre Dame was founded in 1842 by the Rev. Edward Sorin and seven others, according to the university's website. Originally an all-male school, Notre Dame became coed in 1972 and now has a student enrollment of about 12,000. Take a look at some classic photos of the university...

Since its founding in 1906, the city of Gary, Ind., has experienced tumultuous periods of urban growth and decay with the rise and decline of U.S. Steel Corp., which is credited with creating the "Steel City." Take a stroll through the Tribune archives for a visual tour of the city.

Indiana

Police say a 19-year-old Indiana man took a cab to and from a bank robbery and that he paid the driver with some of his stolen cash. Derrick Faria was arrested less than an hour after Thursday's robbery of a Fifth Third Bank branch in Evansville. The Evansville Courier & Press reports that Faria...

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is leaving open the possibility of calling lawmakers back to the Statehouse after this year's legislative session descended into chaos Wednesday as bickering Republicans failed to take up some key bills. The GOP has commanding super majorities in both chambers — holding...

Before dawn on Tuesday, deputies from the Ogle County sheriff’s office south of Rockford responded to a report of a man wandering on a rural stretch of a nearby state road. The 82-year-old man law enforcement found on foot was dehydrated and confused. As he was transported to a hospital for treatment,...

Authorities say six people have been shot in an incident in South Bend. Police say the shooting occurred just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday in a neighborhood on the city's south side. Officers were dispatched to the area after reports of multiple shots fired. Investigators say the victims range in age...

Lifestyles

Here are five things to do in Northwest Indiana on March 23-28. Girl talk: "Steel Magnolias" will hold its last performances March 23-25 at Theatre at the Center in Munster. Tickets are $26-$40. At 1040 Ridge Road. Call 219-836-3255 or go to theatreatthecenter.com. Spring fling: Ivy Tech Spring...

Baritone Robert Morrissey recently celebrated the end of Lyric Opera of Chicago's season after finishing his 32nd full season there after beginning his career at the Lyric 41 years ago. Morrissey and three fellow Lyric performers are part of La Porte Community Concert Association's "An Afternoon...

Dear Mr. Bradshaw, I am applying to several colleges this fall that will require an interview by an alumna or an alumnus. Can you share with me what kind of information they will be looking for in an applicant? Signed, Student Dear Student, Having served as an alumni interviewer and I can give...

One of the favorite radio programs my dad, aunts, uncles and grandparents enjoyed while growing up in the 1930s on the family farm was the ever-exasperated comedian Jack Benny's show. Forever fibbing that his age was "39 and holding" and proud of both his penny-pinching finances and average violin-playing,...

Opinion

Many of us are familiar with the expression, "One can't see the forest for the trees." Years ago, I leveraged this expression when speaking to business owners and sales professionals by discussing "Sea Level" versus "See Level." "Sea Level" was the day-to-day operations, all the trees. To see beyond...

What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. Even though Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was heavily criticized for his travel expense, he has continued in his ways. Between the...

What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. So what did they learn from the Cline Avenue bridge collapse? Cheaper and better works? American teenagers are 82 times more likely...

What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com. Valpo High School said students can protest in school but not outside for 17 minutes. They say its a safety issue. Guess the first...

Crime

Two men are facing charges after police caught them scrapping at a Gary school earlier this month, records show. Del Rico Hardy, 44, and Kevin Levar Kizer, 33, both from Gary, were each charged with burglary, a Level 5 felony, Lake County court records show. On Tuesday, a Gary Community School...

A man is in custody after a woman was shot Friday morning inside a Gary flea market, a spokesman said. The woman, who was shot at Market City Flea Market in the 4100 block of Cleveland Street, was being treated at a local hospital, Emiliano Perez, of the Lake County Sheriff's Department, said in...

The jail, U.S. Marine Corps and an Ohio high school can decide for themselves if the state's subpoenas are overly broad in the death penalty case of Darren Deon Vann , a judge decided. Vann, 46, who is accused of killing seven women, did not attend the status hearing Friday morning in Lake Superior...

The town manager of St. John filed a plea agreement with a Lake County judge seeking to resolve charges he stole political signs in 2015. Stephen Kil appeared in court Thursday with his attorney, William Padula, to submit a plea that would resolve the case with deferred prosecution for six months...

The following are stories as they appeared in The Lake County Star, a weekly newspaper started more than 150 years ago that covered all of Lake County and most of Porter County. The paper was owned and operated by the Wheeler family, descendants of Crown Point founder Solon Robinson. Items are...

The Environmental Club at St. Mary's School in Crown Point loves to go fishing. And on a recent Saturday morning in September, the club members had a great time fishing at one of their principal Tom Ruiz's "secret" fishing holes. It took some planning to get 36 kids and parents to this private...

Most read stories this hour

Weeks after she died, mementos from Carolyn Spencer's life remained under a highway exit ramp near the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond. For years, she took precautions to be alone. Her home was past a trio of tucked away hotels, down a short gravel road filled with potholes, on concrete behind...

Savannah Sanders said Kemonte Cobbs never wanted to stay inside. She said it didn't matter whether it was raining, snowing or hot, her 15-year-old neighbor always wanted to get out in the fresh air to go on some adventure or another. And if he wasn't back by time the streetlights came on, his mom...

Documents show some officials were so concerned about the mental stability of the student accused of last month's Florida high school rampage that they decided he should be forcibly committed. But the recommendation was never acted upon. Cruz is accused of the shooting rampage that killed 14 students...

Mitch Trubisky is the sun in the Bears’ solar system. General manager Ryan Pace made that perfectly clear Jan. 1 when he openly challenged himself to surround the franchise quarterback with talent. Trubisky then watched Pace hire Matt Nagy, a former Arena League quarterback, to be the head coach....

Only a few weeks ago, Dan McNeil was talking trade-ins rather than trades. While he enjoyed selling cars – or at least trying to – it clearly was not his forte. “It would have taken me a long time to get good at that. It’s not something that happens overnight,” said McNeil, who last week began...

It was looking, on Sunday’s “The Walking Dead,” as though the Saviors were heading for a showdown with the Hilltop, the warriors against the farmers, a No. 1 seed against a No. 16, or at least a 5 versus an 11. Their knives were dipped in zombie guts, per Savior leader Negan’s scheme that seemed...

When the Obama Presidential Center opens in about three years, visitors can get to it by car, Metra, bike or bus, but not by that most iconic form of Chicago transportation — the “L.” That’s because a Green Line branch that would have led right to the center was torn down in 1997, after some community...

After a few committed months of hot yoga at a studio in New York, Christina Rice had found her niche. So when the studio announced that it was offering teacher training, she signed right up. It was only when she arrived with her mat that she noticed something striking. There were 54 other women...

I spent the first two decades of my career as a social scientist studying liars and their lies. I thought I had developed a sense of what to expect from them. Then along came President Donald Trump. His lies are both more frequent and more malicious than ordinary people's. In research beginning...

The Rev. C. Frank Phillips, founder of a religious order of men and pastor at the storied St. John Cantius Catholic Parish, was removed last week by the Archdiocese of Chicago amid an investigation into allegations of improper conduct with adult men, according to church officials. In a statement...

Like Chicago’s downtown on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, a river of green has flowed through TV sets ahead of Tuesday’s primary vote, as governor candidates have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising during the long campaign. The frenzied final weekend of in-person campaigning supplements...

The one person who may be feeling the most pressure after the special election in Pennsylvania isn’t Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell. Sure, they’re both in danger of losing their respective majority statuses in November’s midterm elections, but they already knew that. Nor does anything change for...

On a recent evening, state Rep. Dan Burke stood in the sun-kissed living room of Mary Anne Turner’s brick bungalow on South Mulligan Street and listened for 19 minutes as the longtime resident described a rat infestation on her block. For the first time, she won’t be planting peppers and tomatoes...

In a series of tweets March 17 and 18, President Donald Trump made a number of inaccurate or misleading statements about the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. As a reader service, here's a quick guide to his claims. "As the House Intelligence Committee has...

Clip and save: Kyle Schwarber will be the Cubs’ leadoff hitter. I don’t know if he’ll be at the top of the order on opening day in Miami a week from Thursday, but you watch, he’ll be there and he’ll be there quickly, and I think this year he’ll be there with better results. I don’t have inside...

And here we are again, back to the same question: What to do about Louis Farrakhan? The leader of the Nation of Islam has, for years, been a toxic fount of anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric. “These false Jews,” he preached in 2006, “promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American...

Hikers found the body of a man Sunday outside Mundelein in a totaled car, the same make and model as that of a Round Lake Park man reported missing two weeks ago. The identity of the man had yet to be released as of Sunday evening by the Lake County Coroner's Office, but the vehicle description...

After two rounds, four days, 48 games and one Sister Jean, here are the NCAA tournament's winners and losers so far. Winner: Sister Jean Our local treasure has become a national star. Bless her heart. Loser: Thomas Jefferson The third U.S. president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence...

It's just after dark in Vancouver's downtown financial district, on a chilly autumn evening, and I'm gazing up at the twisting, triangular, neo-futurist Trump International Hotel & Tower, rising 63 stories and 616 feet into the air. If you're impressed by tall things, the Trump tower is pretty...

As the biggest news organization in Chicago and the Midwest, the Chicago Tribune wants to inform our readers and encourage them to push an agenda for a more vital community. The most direct way they do that is in choosing who will lead their governments. Our readers make up their own minds when...

Loyola guard Marques Townes has passed out flyers with teammates in campus dorms, encouraging his fellow students to come watch them play. Coach Porter Moser has spoken at freshman orientations throughout his seven seasons, hoping to make an impression that turns new students into fans. Moser and...

Police were investigating two robberies in the Lincoln Park area this month, authorities said. In both North Side robberies, a man approached the victims from behind, placed a hard object in their back implying a weapon and demanded money before running away, police said. The most recent robbery...

Dear Amy: During the holidays, my fiance and I attended a party. Throughout the course of the evening a friend's husband was overly flirty with me, and during the typical polite hug goodbye, he grabbed my chin and planted a kiss square on my lips. I shoved him away, gave him a few choice words...

Last week, Eater Chicago reported that an unnamed OpenTable employee in Chicago had attempted to undermine competing restaurant booking company Reserve. To do so, the person made hundreds of fake reservations over a three-month period on Reserve, which translated to a flurry of no-shows, a huge...

Cubs manager Joe Maddon often uses information to supplement what he witnesses with his own eyes. And his observations appear accurate after watching a svelte Kyle Schwarber double, triple and run the bases at a brisk pace in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians. After striking out in his...